In conventional methods for removing contaminants from soiled items (such as, for example, cloth diapers, undergarment, baby and adult clothing, bedpans, a bowl of a potty chair or potty toilet, and more), the methods involved rinsing the soiled items directly into or over a toilet with a handheld sprayer attached to a potable water supply. Soiled items were also rinsed in a flat bottom bucket or pail, with a hole cut in the bottom and placed on the rim of a toilet bowel. Soiled items were also rinsed with a handheld spray shield. In other conventional rinsing methods, soiled items were rinsed of large contaminants (such as, for example, fecal matter or vomit) either by depositing the soiled item directly into water inside the toilet in a swishing motion or by pouring of water from a bucket or other receptacle directly onto the soiled item as the soiled item was held over or just inside of the bowl of the toilet.
Such conventional methods for rinsing soiled items are often undesirable because they do not help to reduce splattering, and in the case of methods using a flat bottomed bucket or other flat bottomed receptacle, cannot prevent contaminated water from splattering off the bottom of the bucket or other receptacle. Flat bottomed buckets and receptacles cannot quickly drain and require additional rinsing until contaminates are rinsed down the hole causing more splashing off the flat bottom thereby further creating contaminated water mist. Flat bottomed buckets and receptacles sitting on a rim of the toilet also cause splashing in the toilet water as the water drains from the drain hole located through the bottom of the bucket, which bottom and drain hole are positioned above the rim of the toilet bowl when sitting on the rim. Spray shields are difficult to use because the user must hold the shield out of the water or place it in the contaminated water while rinsing. Flat bottomed buckets, pails, other receptacles, and shields placed in a drip pan on the floor sit directly in the drain water, which contaminates the bottom of the bucket, pail, other receptacle, or shield.
A need exists for an apparatus and methods that permit soiled items to be rinsed to remove contaminants, and particularly larger contaminants such as fecal matter, into a toilet while avoiding splashing and contamination of surrounding surfaces, outside surfaces of the apparatus, surfaces of the toilet outside of the toilet bowl, and the user's skin, hair, and clothing. A need also exists for a rinsing tub that can be used as a trash receptacle when it is not in use for rinsing soiled items over a toilet.